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PATRIOTISM: 

Its Duty . . . 
- - - and Value. 



AN ADDRESS 
Before the New York Commandery of the " Loyal Legion," 

NEW YORI-C,"A.PRIL 4, 1894. 



MOST REV. JOHN IRELAND, D.D, 



New York : 

THE CATHOLIC BOOK EXCHANGE. 

120 West 60th Sheet. 



i 



105 






THE 

DUTY AND VALUE OF PATRIOTISM. 



Commander, Companions: To speak of patriotism is my 
evening's task. An eas}' and gracious one it ought to be. Patriot- 
ism is personified in ni}^ audience. The honor is mine to address the 
country's heroes, the country's martyrs. At country's call you 
quickl)^ buckled your armor on, and rushing where battle raged, j-ou 
offered for country's life the life-blood of your hearts. Many of you 
bear upon limb and face the sacred stigmata of patriotism. Your 
tried hands are doubly pledged in purest unselfishness and bravest 
resolve to uphold in the reign of peace the loved flag which in days 
of war the}' carried over gory fields above stain or reproach. I 
could not, if I would, close the portals of my soul to the rich and 
sweet inspirations which come to me from your souls. 

I shall define patriotism as you understand and feel it. Patriot- 
ism is love of countr}', and loyalty to its life and weal — love tender 
and strong : tender as the love of son for mother, strong as the 
pillars of death ; loyalty generous and disinterested, shrinking from 
no sacrifice, seeking no reward save country's honor and countr\''s 
triumph, • ' * 

Beauty and Value of Patriotism. 

Patriotism ! There is magic in the word. It is bliss to repeat 
it. Through ages the human race burnt the incense of admiration 
and reverence at the shrines of patriotism. The most beautiful 
pages of history are those which count its deeds. Fireside tales, the 
outpourings of the memories of peoples, borrow from it their warm- 
est glow. Poets are sweetest when they re-echo its whisperings ; 
orators are most potent when the}^ thrill its chords to music. 

Pagan nations were wrong when they made gods of their noblest 
patriots. But the error was the excess of a great truth : that heaven 
unites with earth in approving and blessing patriotism, that patriot- 
ism is one of earth's highest virtues, worthy to have come down from 
the atmosphere of the skies. 

The exalted patriotism of the exiled Hebrew exhaled itself in a 
canticle of religion which Jehovah inspired, and which has been 
transmitted, as the inheritance of God's people, to the Christian 
Church : " Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when 



2 • The Duty and Value of Patriotism. 

we remembered Sioii. ... If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my 
right hand be forgotten. Let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do 
not remember thee, if I do not make Jerusalem the beginning of 
my joy." 

The human race pays homage to patriotism, because of its su- 
preme value. The value of patriotism to a p^eople is above gold and 
precious stones, above commerce and industry, above citadels and 
war- ships. Patriotism is the vital spark of national honor ; it is the 
fount of the nation's prosperity, the shield of the nation's safety. 
Take patriotism away : the nation's soul has fled, bloom and beauty 
have vanished from the nation's countenance. 

The human race pays homage to patriotism because of its su- 
preme loveliness. Patriotism goes out to what is among earth's pos- 
sessions the most precious, the first and best and dearest — country ; 
and its effusion is the fragrant flowering of the purest and noblest 
sentiments of the heart. 

Patriotism is innate in all men ; the absence of it betokens a per- 
version of human nature ; but it grows its full growth only where 
thoughts are elevated and heart-beatings are generous. 

Next to God is country, and next to religion is patriotism. No 
praise goes beyond its deserts. It is sublime in its heroic oblation 
upon the field of battle. " O glorious is he," exclaims in Homer the 
Trojan warrior, "who for his country falls! " It is sublime in the 
oft-repeated toil of dutiful citizenship. "Of all human doings," 
writes Cicero, " none is more honorable and more estimable than to 
merit well of the commonwealth." 

Countries are of Divine Appointment. 

Countries are of divine appointment. The Most High " divided 
the nations, separated the sons of Adam, and appointed the bounds 
of peoples." The physical and moral necessities of God's creatures 
are revelations of His will and laws. Man is born a social being. A 
condition of his existence and of his growth to mature age is the 
family. Nor does the family suffice to itself. A larger social organ- 
ism is needed, into which families gather, so as to obtain from one 
another security to life and property, and aid in the development of 
the faculties and powers with which nature has endowed the children 
of men. The whole human race is too extensive and too diversified 
in interests to serve those ends : hence its sub-divisions into 
countries or peoples. Countries have their providential limits — the 
waters of a sea, a mountain range, the lines of similarity of require- 
ments, or of methods of living. The limits widen in space according 
to the measure of the destinies which the great Ruler allots to 
peoples, and the importance of their parts in the mighty work of the 



The Duty and Value of Patriotism. 3 

cycles of years, the ever-advancing tide of humanity's evolution. 
The Lord is the God of nations, because He is the God of men. No 
nation is born into life or vanishes back into nothingness without 
His bidding. I believe in the providence of God over countries as 
I believe in His wisdom and His love, and my patriotism to my 
country rises within my soul invested with the halo of my religipn to 
my God. 

Our own Country. 

More than a century ago a trans- Atlantic poet and philosopher, 
reading well the signs, wrote : 

" Westward the star of empire takes its way. 
The first four acts already past, 
A fifth shall close the drama with the day : 
Time's noblest offspring is the last." 

Berkeley's prophetic eye had descried America. What shall I 
say in a brief discourse of my country's value and beauty, of her 
claims to my love and loyalty ? I will pass by in silence her fields 
and forests, her rivers and seas, the boundless riches hidden beneath 
her soil and amid the rocks of her mountains, her pure arid health- 
giving air, her transcendent wealth of nature's fairest and most 
precious gifts. I will not speak of the noble qualities and robust 
deeds of her sons, skilled in commerce and industry, valorous in 
war, prosperous in peace. In all these things America is opulent 
and great ; but be3'ond them and above them is her singular gran- 
deur, to which her material splendor is only the fitting circumstance. 

America born into the family of nations in these latter times is the 
highest billow in humanity's evolution, the crowning effort of ages in 
the aggrandizement of man. Unless we take her in this altitude 
we do not comprehend her; we belittle her towering stature, and 
conceal the singular design of Providence in her creation. 

The Country of Human Dignity. 

America is the country of human dignity and human liberty. 

When the fathers of the Republic declared : ' ' That all men are 
created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the ptirsuit 
of happiness," a cardinal principle was enunciated, which in its truth 
was as old as the race, but in practical realization almost unknown. 

Slowly, amid sufferings and revolutions, humanity had been 
reaching out toward a reign of the rights of man. Ante-Christian 
paganism had utterly denied such rights. It allowed nothing to man 
as man ; he was what wealth, place, or power made him. Even the 
wise Aristotle taught that some men were intended by nature to be 
slaves and chattels. The sweet religion of Christ proclaimed aloud 



4 TJie Duty and Value of Patriotism. 

the doctrine of the common fatherhood of God, and the universal 
brotherhood of men. Eighteen hundred 3'ears, however, went by, 
and the civilized world had not yet put its civil and political institu- 
tions in accord with its spiritual faith. The Christian Church was 
all this time leavening human society, and patiently awaiting the 
promised fermentation. This came at last, and it came in America. 
It came in a first manifestation through the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence ; it came in a second and final manifestation through President 
Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation. 

In America all men are civilly and politically equal ; all have 
the same rights ; all wield the same arm of defence and of conquest, 
the suffrage ; and the sole condition of rights and of power is simple 
manhood. 

The Country of Liberty. 

Liberty is the exemption from all restraint sav^e that of the laws 
of justice and order ; the exemption from submission to other men, 
except as they represent and enforce those laws./ The divine gift of 
liberty to man is God's recognition of his greatness and his dignity. 
The sweetness of life and the power of growth lie in libert)^ The 
loss of liberty is the loss of light and sunshine, the loss of life's best 
portion. Humanity, under the spell of heavenly memories, never 
ceased to dream of liberty, and to aspire to its possession. Now and 
then, here and there, its refreshing breezes caressed humanity's 
brow. But not until the Republic of the West was born, not until 
the star-spangled banner rose toward the .skies, was liberty caught up 
in humanit3''s embrace, and embodied in a great and abiding nation. 

In America the government takes from the liberty of the citizen 
only so much as is necessary for the weal of the nation, which the 
citizen by his own act freely concedes. In America there are no 
masters, who govern in their own right, for their own interest, or at 
their own will. We have over us no Louis XIV. saying: " L'etat 
c'est moi " ; no Hohenzollern, announcing that in his acts as sov- 
ereign he is responsible only to his conscience and to God. Ours is 
the government of the people, by the people, and for the people. 
The government is our own organized will. 

There is no State above or apart from the People. 

/ Rights begin with, and go upward from the people. In other 
countries, even those apparentlj^ the most free, rights begin with 
and come downward from the state. y The rights of citizens, the 
rights of the people, are concessions which have been painfully 
wrenched from the governing powers. With Americans, when- 
ever the organized government does not prove its grant, the 
liberty of the individual citizen is sacred and inviolable. Elsewhere 



The Duty and Value of Patriotism. 5 

there are governments called republics : universal suffrage consti- 
tutes the state; but once constituted the state is tyrannous and 
arbitrary, and invades at will private rights, and curtails at will 
individual liberty. One Republic is liberty's native home — America. 

The God-given mission of the Republic of America is not only to 
its own people : it is to all the peoples of the earth, before whose 
ej'es it is the symbol of human rights and human liberty, toward 
whom its flag flutters hopes of future happiness for themselves. 

Is there not for Americans a meaning to the word. Country ? Is 
there not for Americans reason to live for country, and, if need there 
be, to die for country? Is there not joy in the recollection that you 
have been her saviours, and glory in the name of America's " L,oyal 
Legion " ? Whatever the country, patriotism is a duty : in America 
the duty is thrice sacred. 

A Duty of Justice and of Gratitude. 

The duty of patriotism is the duty of justice and of gratitude. 
The country fosters and protects our dearest interests — our altars and 
hearthstones — pro aris et focis. Without it there is no safet)' for life 
or property, no opportunities of development and progress. All that 
the country is, .she makes ours. We are wise of her wisdom, rich of 
her opulence, resplendent of her glory, strong of her fortitude. At 
once the prisoner Paul rose to eminence, and obtained respect from 
Palestinian Jews and Roman soldiers, when he proudly announced 
that he was a citizen of Rome — Civis Romanus. And to-day how 
significant, the world over, are the w^ords : I am a citizen of America 
— Civis Americanus ! 

Duty to country is a duty of conscience, a duty to God. For 
country exists by natural divine right. It receives from God the 
authority needful for its life and work : its authority to command is 
divine. The apostle of Christ to the gentiles writes : " There is no 
power but from God, and those that are, are ordained of God. 
Therefore, he that resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of 
God." The religion of patriotism is not sufiiciently considered: 
and yet, it is this religion which gives to country its majesty, aud to 
patriotism its sacredness and force. 

Next to God is Country. 

As the part to the whole, so is the citizen to the countr}' ; and 
this relation is the due measure of patriotism. The country and its 
interests are paramount to the citizen and his interests. A king of 
France, St. L,ouis, set to his device this motto : " Dieu, la France, et 
Marguerite." It told the order of allegiances: God first, next to 
God country, next to country family, one's self the last — the willing 
and generous chevalier, even unto death, of famil}^ country, and God. 



6 The Duty ajid Value of Patriotism. 

Allegiance to countr)- is limited only by allegiance to God. God 
and his eternal laws of justice and righteousness are supreme, and 
hold first claims upon conscience. A country which exacts the 
violation of those laws, annuls its own moral authority and becomes 
an aggregation of human wills, which physical force alone sustains. 
"To God, that which is God's; to Caesar, that which is Caesar's." 
In olden paganism the state arrogated to itself supremacy in ethics as 
in temporals, and ruled consciences. Under this tyranny of the soul 
freedom's last ray vanished ; the last vestige of human dignity was 
eifaced. Christ made men free; He brought back the state to its 
proper orbit ; and, restoring truth upon earth. He restored man- 
hood to man, and to country the effulgence of the skies. 

The Supreme Test of Patriotism. 

It is fortunate for a people that from time to time supreme emer- 
gencies arise testing its patriotism to the highest pitch. If patriot- 
ism remains dormant for a long period it may lessen in strength, 
while the reflection and self-consciousness which resolute action 
awakens result in a fuller estimate of the value of the country and 
institutions which it is the duty of patriotism to defend. 

A supreme emergency did arise for the people of America. 

There had been, indee-d, patriotism intense and sublime in the 
Revolutionary war, when 

" In their ragged regimentals 
Stood the old Continentals, 
Yielding not." 

But had this patriotism survived ? Notable changes had come 
over the country. The population had been made much more 
eclectic ; commerce and industry, usuallj^ unpropitious to sentiment 
and exaltation of soul, had engrossed the public mind ; the spirit of 
democracy, in its workings toward individualism of character, might 
have unfitted the citizen for sacrifice in behalf of the general weal. 
I was in Europe when the civil war broke out, and I well remember 
the tone of the public press regarding the American situation. It 
was asserted that patriotism was unknown to Americans, and that a 
free government like ours, compelled to rely upon volunteer service, 
could not muster a large army of defenders. The proclamation of 
President Lincoln calling for 75,000 soldiers was received as the 
venturesome act of despair, and a qtiick dissolution of the Union was 
prophesied. At home there were not a few whose thoughts were 
those of the unfriendly Europeans. 

On the morning of the twelfth day of April, in the memorable 
year of 186 1, a cannon-ball swept over the waters of Charleston 



The Duty and Value of Patriotism. 7 

harbor, aimed with deadly intent at the star-spangled banner, float- 
ing above the walls of Sumter. War was declared against the 
countr}'. 

The Significance of the War. 

How much there was at stake ! Scarcely can we at this moment 
recall without trepidation the awful significance of the contest. 

At stake was the union of the States, the strength and life of the 
country. What constitutes each State, from the Atlantic waters to 
those of the Pacific, strong, hopeful, palpitating with giant life and 
ready for giant progress ? This only fact : that the States are one 
nation, and that, at home and abroad, one flag symbolizes them. A 
northern republic, a southern republic, a western republic — the 
nations would despise them. The Republic of the United States — 
the nations fear and honor it. 

At stake w'as the plenary recognition of human rights in our own 
country. In contradiction to the Declaration of Independence, men 
were held as slaves — forsooth, because of color; in practice, America 
had failed as yet to be the ideal countr}- of manhood and human dig- 
nity. Had rebellion triumphed, slaver}' would have been confirmed, 
and the Declaration of Independence formally and permanently 
belied. 

At stake was liberty for the world, the stabilit}' of a government 
of the people, for the people, and by the people. The Union dis- 
rupted, its shattered fragments prostrate over the land, as the broken 
and desolate columns of once famous temples in Grecian and Roman 
regions, Liberty, shrieking over the ruins, would have hastened back 
to caverns of gloom, her friends abandoning hope, her enemies 
rejoicing and confident. The death of the Union implied a century 
of retrogression for humanity. 

Deep and soul-rending was the ceaseless anxiety of freedom's 
sons during the dreary years of America's civil war. At every rising 
of the morning sun the heavens were questioned : 

" O say, can you see by the dawn's early light 
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? 

" O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ? " 

O God of nations ! we, this evening, thank thee : all was well : 
American patriotism was on guard : and the day came when, at 
Appomattox, one flag unfurled its beauteous folds over both contend- 
ing armies : 

" 'Tis the star-spangled banner : O long may it wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave !" 



8 The Duty and Value of Patriotism. 

The Results of the War. 

Two things in our civil war amazed the world — one, the number 
and courage of our volunteer soldiers ; the other, the ability of the 
commanders. In other countries large standing armies, years of 
careful training for men and officers, are the prerequisites of success- 
ful warfare. In America the chief executive of the Republic waves 
his wand, and armies spring up as by incantation. One motive rules 
them, the saving of the country ; they are most daring in deed ; the 
leadership is most skilful. The records of their battles are studied 
in wonderment by famed warriors of Europe. Especially did the 
skilled leadership in our armies astonish Europeans. I met recently 
in Paris a well-known general of Russia ; he said : ' ' War is a science 
of high degree ; at the commencement of the contest the government 
of the United States had at its disposal only a handful of trained 
officers ; the war, moreover, was to offer in its varied operations 
unusual difficulties ; and yet the command throughout the vast 
army w^as admirable in skill of planning and execution." 

Great the sacrifices which the war in defence of the country 
demanded ! But great the results ! No one now doubts that 
America is patriotic, and that a free people may be relied upon to 
defend its country. The United States is respected by the nations 
of the world : they remember what it was capable of when 
divided ; they understand what it is capable of when united. The 
victory of the Union brought peace and prosperity to conquerors and 
to conquered : to-daj^ the conquered rejoice no less than the con- 
querors that the old flag has not lost one star from its azure ground. 
The seal of finality has been set upon the Union, the God of battle 
ending disputes, and deciding that we are a nation one and 
indestructible. Slavery has been blotted out, and the escutcheon of 
free America is cleansed of blemish. Liberty is without peril in her 
chosen home, and from America's shores she sends her fragrant 
breathings across seas and oceans. The quickened march of repub- 
licanism and democrac}' which the present times witness through the 
southern continent of America, and through Europe, goes out from 
the great heart of the triumphant Republic of the United States. 

The sacrifices ! Each one of you, companions, says in truth : 
"Quorum pars magna fui." The results! They are 3^ours, since 
the sacrifices were yours which purchased them. This great nation 
is your especial belonging : 3^ou saved it by the libation of youx 
blood. By you the star-spangled banner was guarded, at the peril 
of your life, in its hour of trial ; let others love it and seek its smiles : 
they cannot have for it 3^our passion, and, were speech allowed it, 
accents of sweetness would flow out to you which others should not 
hear. 



The Duty and Value of Patriotism. 9 

Patriotism in Time of Peace. 

The days of peace have come upon our fair land : the days when 
patriotism was a duty have not departed. What was saved by war 
must be preserved. 

A government of the people, by the people, and for the people, as 
proposed by the founders of the Republic, was, in the light of the 
facts of histor}^, a stupendous experiment. The experiment has so 
\ far succeeded. A French publicist, De Maistre, once dismissed with 
contempt the argument drawn from the United States in favor of free 
institutions in Europe, remarking : ' ' The Republic of the United 
States is in its swathing-clothes ; let it grow : wait a century and you 
will see." The Republic has lived out a century, it has lived out a 
mighty civil war, with no diminution, assuredly, of vigor and prom- 
ise. Can we say, however, that it is beyond all the stages of an ex- 
periment? The world at large is not willing to grant this con- 
clusion : it tells us, even, that the Republic is but now entering upon 
its crucial crisis. New conditions, indeed, confront us : new perils 
menace us, in a population bordering on the hundredth million and 
prepared quickly to leap beyond this figure, in plethoric and un- 
wieldy urban conglomerations, in that unbridled luxury of living con- 
sequent on vast material prosperity', which in all times is a dreaded 
foe to liberty. It were reckless folly on our part to deny all force to 
the objections which are put to us. 

Meanwhile, the destinies of numerous peoples are in the balance. 
They move toward liberty, as liberty is seen to reign undisturbed in 
America ; they recede toward absolutism and hereditary regimes, as 
clouds are seen darkening our sky. Civil, political, social happen- 
ings of America are watched, the world over, with intense anxiety, 
because of their supposed bearings upon the question of the practi- 
cability of popular government. A hundred times the thought 
pressed itself upon me, as I discussed in foreign countries the modern 
democracy, that, could Americans understand how much is made to 
depend upon the outcome of republican and democratic institutions 
in their country, a new fire of patriotism, a new zeal in the welfare 
of the Republic, would kindle within their hearts. 

For my part, I have unwavering faith in the Republic of America. 
I have faith in the providence of God and the progress of humanity : 
I will not believe that liberty is not a permanent gift, and it were 
not if America fail. I have faith in the powerful and loyal national 
heart of America, which clings fast to liberty, and sooner or later 
rights wrongs and uproots evils. I have no fears. Clouds cross the 
heavens : soon a burst of sunlight dispels them. Di£ferent interests 
in society are out of joint with one another, and the social organism 
is feverish : it is simply the effort toward new adjustments ; in a 



lo The Duty and Value of Patriotism. 

little while there will be order and peace. Threatening social and 
political evils are near, and are seemingly gaining ground : the 
American people are conservatively patient : but ere long the na- 
tional heart is roused and the evils, however formidable be their 
aspect, go down before the tread of an indignant people. 

Dangers to a Government by the People. 

The safety of the Republic hes in the vigilant and active patriot- 
ism of the American people. 

There is a danger in the ignorance of voters. As a rule, the 
man who does not read and write intelligently, cannot vote intelli- 
gently. Americans understand the necessity of popular instruction, 
and spare no expense in spreading it. They cannot be too zealous in 
\ the matter. They need to have laws in every State which will 
\)unish, as guilty of crime against the country, the parent who 
neglects to send his children to school. 

There is a danger — and a most serious one — in corrupt morals. 
A people without good morals is incapable of self-government. At 
the basis of the proper exercise of the suffrage lie unselfishness and 
the spirit of sacrifice. A corrupt man is selfish ; an appeal to duty 
finds no response in his conscience ; he is incapable of the high- 
mindedness and generous acts which are the elements of patriotism ; 
he is ready to sell the country for pelf or pleasure. Patriotism takes 
alarm at the spread of intemperance, lasciviousness, dishonesty, 
perjury; for country's sake it should arm against those dire evils all 
the country's forces, its legislatures, its courts, and, above all else, 
public opinion. Materialism and the denial of a living, supreme 
God annihilate conscience, and break down the barriers to sensual- 
it}' ; they sow broadcast the seeds of moral death : they are fatal to 
liberty and social order. A people without a belief in God and a 
future life of the soul will not remain a free people. The age of the 
democracy must, for its own protection, be an age of religion. 

Empires and monarchies rely upon sword and cannon ; republics, 
/upon the citizen's respect for law. Unless law be sacred a free gov- 
( ernment will not endure. L,aws may be repealed through constitu-^ 
TTonal means, but while they are inscribed on the statute book they 
should be observed. The lowering of the dignit}^ of law, by deed, 
teaching or connivance, is treason. Anarchical explosions, mob riots, 
lynchings, shake the pillars of the commonwealth ; other violations 
of law, the determined defiance of municipal and state authority by 
the liquor- traffic, the stealthy avoidance of payment of taxes and of 
custom duties, sear consciences, and beget a fatal habit of disobedi- 
ence. A law-abiding people only is worthy of liberty and capable of 
guarding its treasures. 



The Duty and Value of Patriotism. 1 1 

The Purity of the Ballot. 

What shall I say of the purity of the ballot, of the integrity of the 
public official ? I touch upon the life-threads of the Republic, and 
words fail to express the solemnity of my thoughts. The poet Virgil 
places amid horrible torments in his hell the man "who sold his 
country for gold, and imposed upon it a master ; who made and 
^unmade laws for a price." 

" Vendidit hie auro patriain, doininumque potentem 
Imposuit; fixit leges pretio, atque refixit." 

The poet had a righteous sense of the enormity of the crime. The 
suffrage is the power of life or death over the state. The one licit 
motive in its use is the public weal, to which private and party 
interests should be always sacrificed. The voter making misuse of 
the trust deserves to be disfranchised ; the man who compasses the 
misuse, who weaves schemes to defraud the popular will, desen-es to 
be proscribed. The public official is appointed for the people's good, 
and is sworn to work for it ; if he prostitutes his office, legislative or 
executive, to enrich himself or his friends, he has "sold his country 
for gold," and he is a traitor. The distribution of office, or of 
administrative power, must be based on fitness ; the spoils system in 
politics inevitably leads to public corruption, treacherous and unsafe 
administration, and the ultimate foundering of the ship of state. 

American Citizenship— The Sole Standard. 

Storms are passing over the land, arising from sectarian hatred, 
and nativist or foreign prejudices. These are scarcely to be heeded : 
they cannot last. Day by day the spirit of Americanism waxes 
strong ; narrowness of thought and unreasoning strife cannot resist 
its influences. 

This country is America : only they who are loyal to her can be 
allowed to live under her flag ; and they who are loyal to her may 
enjoy all her liberties and rights. Freedom of religion is accorded 
by the Constitution : religion is put outside state action, and most 
wisely so; therefore, the religion of a citizen must not be considered 
by voter or executive officer. The oath of allegiance to the country 
makes the man a citizen : if that allegiance is not plenary and su- 
preme, he is false to his profession ; if it is, he is an American. 
Discriminations and segregations, in civil or political matters, on 
lines of religion, of birth-place, or of race, or of language— and, I add, 
or of color — is un-American, and wrong. Compel all to be Ameri- 
cans, in soul as well as in name : and then, let the standard of their 
value be their American citizenship. 



12 The Duty ajid Value of Patriotism. 

American Patriotism is Needed. 

Who will say that there is uo work for patriotism in days of 
peace ? If it need not to be so courageous as in war, it needs to be 
more watchful and enduring : for the e\-ils against which it contends 
in peace are more persevering, more stealthy in the advance, more 
delusive in the attack. We can easily imagine that a countrv*, in- 
\-incible in war, may go down to its ruin amid the luxuries and 
somnolence of prolonged peace. Hannibal won at Thras^Tuenus, but 
he lost the fruits of victory- in the vineyards and orange-groves of 
Campania. 

The days of war. many hope, are passing away for good, and 
arbitration is to take its place. This may be desirable, for war is 
terrible. Yet, it is not easy to see what is to be so serviceable in 
electrifying the nation's patriotism, and communicating to it an 
ardor which refuses during many years to dim its glow. Certain it 
is that under the reign of peace we must, in season and out of season, 
look to the patriotism of the country, that it suffer no diminution in 
vigor and earnest work. 

American patriotism is needed — patriotism intense, which speaks 
out in noble pride, with beating heart : Civis Americanus — I am an 
American citizen : patriotism active, which shows itself in deed and 
in sacrifice : patriotism public-spirited, which cares for the public 
v.-eal as for the apple of the eye. Private personal civic ^-irtue is not 
uncommon among us : more uncommon is public civic virtue, which 
watches the ballot and all approaches to it, which demands that 
public officials do their duty, which purifies public opinion on all 
matters where country- is concerned. This patriotism will save the 
Republic. 

From whom primarily does the Republic expect this patriotism ? 
From her veteran soldiers. 

This patriotism, America, thou shalt have. I speak for veterans. 
I speak for their brother-citizens. 

Xoblest ship of state, sail thou on over billows, and through 
storms, undaunted, imperishable I Of thee I do not say : ' ' Caesarem 
vehis — thou carriest Caesar.'" But of thee I sa}- : " Libertatem vehis 
— thou carriest Liberty." Within thy bulwarks the fair goddess is 
enthroned, holding in her hands the dreams and hopes of humanity. 
Oh I for her sake, guard well thyself. Sail thou on. peerless ship, 
safe from shoals and malign winds, ever strong in keel, ever beau- 
teous in prow and canvas, ever guided by heaven's polar star ! Sail 
thou on. I pray thee, undaunted and imperishable ! 




ATRIOTISM : 



Its Duty and Value. 



• * • 



.=;;^sHh«^fe- 



BY 



MOST J^EV. JOHN It^EIifl^^lD, D.D. 



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